Whats the role and effect of pedantry in comp.lang.c?
As a focussed technical newsgroup, comp.lang.c partly depends on an approach near enough to pedantic that the group’s etiquette allows for pedantry. C is governed by an international Standard that leaves much undefined and that requires careful interpretation. Without pedantic responses many subtle errors and intricacies would not be pointed out to readers. “Pedantic” is probably also one part of the description of the thought processes required for or acquired whilst programming and debugging C code. The pedantic label is often acknowledged tongue-in-cheek by regulars. This attitude provides a clue that even in comp.lang.c pedantry is not universally respected. In some forums pedantry would be considered disrespectful or rude in general. There are occasions in comp.lang.c where the same etiquette applies. Someone who puts a lot of thought and effort into a post or who is making an important point or one based on hard-won personal experience, is likely to find a glib or boilerplate rep
